Posted on 02/09/22
| News Source: JNS
An increasing number of French Jews believe that anti-Semitism is widespread in their country, according to a new survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee.
According to the study, conducted in late 2021, 85 percent of Jews said that anti-Semitism is widespread. That number is up nearly 20 points from a similar survey conducted just two years earlier that found 67 percent of French Jews said Jew-hatred was widespread.
Further, 73 percent of Jews have been victims of anti-Semitism. While the vast majority of incidents were derogatory remarks, some 20 percent of the reported incidents were labeled as “physical violence.”
According to Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, director-general of AJC Europe, there was a “75 percent increase in anti-Semitism” in France in 2021.
“More than the actual numbers of anti-Semitic hate crimes,” she told JNS, “I believe it has to do with the prevalence of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during the anti-vax movements with demonstrators branding an infamous ‘who’ sign, suggesting Jews were behind coronavirus or the vaccine, depending on the form of conspiracy theory … .”